Give a lil elbow room

I saw this story and just had to repost it, because I absolutely agree with the point the author makes.

Daniel Boone had it right, elbow room is pretty dang nice. I know my wife will cringe at this analogy, but Chris LeDoux sings about a rancher who moves into town and longs for the wide open spaces of the ranch. A verse in the song laments how he can no longer relieve himself off his back porch.

It’s a long way from being poetic, but it concisely points up perhaps one of the many things we take for granted living in rural America.

As I drove in to visit a friend/rancher this week, I didn't think twice about the river bottoms I passed, the deer I spooked up along the road, or the fact that when I got out I could have yelled at the top of my lungs without disturbing a neighbor.

I did, however, notice the new roping arena down in this scenic valley. It was a big pen, nearly 300 ft. long and 180 ft. wide. The white continuous fence just glistened and the arena sand had been freshly worked. It was downright pretty.

Roping is more than a hobby, it’s a passion. I didn't think anything when he mentioned how he calves cows a mile south of the headquarters or offered to show me his herd bulls in a pasture just three miles from the house.

Nothing dawned on me until I was driving to a meeting later in Denver and sitting in traffic on a three-lane interstate. Off to my left was a housing development that literally stacked house upon house, while a sign trumpeted starting prices as low as $290,000. Eight houses and a little grassy area they called a park didn't take up as much space as my friend’s roping arena!

While being able to relieve yourself off your back porch without having to worry about neighbors, having the luxury of looking up in a night sky to see millions of stars, or creating a full-size basketball court for your kids in your Quonset might not pay a lot of bills, it sure does make life more agreeable.
-- Troy Marshall

Its beginning to look a lot like....

Well I do not want to say Christmas yet, because I am not near ready for it to be here. But I am excited about the fact that I only have 3 full weeks of class left for the semester. Then there is Thanksgiving break, Dead week, and Finals week. Oh how I dread the two weeks of nothing but reading and studying. But I am so glad that I finished all of my group projects and they went well. Now I am left with only one paper, one speech, and four tests before finals. That is a BIG sigh of relief. I am more than ready to get home for a month of Christmas break and work out in the mud and weather and maybe get a little, scratch that A LOT, of riding time in. Although this will be my last Christmas break ever, barring going back to grad school.

I had a group debate in one of my classes and the topic was Animal Identification; specifically the implementation of the National Animal Identification System. It was really difficult to fully disagree with the implementation of a mandatory animal idenficitation sysyem. There is no appeal to me in the government stepping in and controlling yet another factor of the cattle industry. I really hate to see the cattle industry turn toward streamline production but there really is no way around it. Larger operations will prevail because they have more resources to withstand financial hardships and the lows that come with the markets. The smaller operations naturally cannot withstand those times as easily. But it is my background and anyone would be proud of and standup for their upbringing. There was one guy on the other team that continually harped the fact that smaller operations were just going to have to suffer and shut down at the expense of the industry's well-being and that was just the fact of the matter. It really was a low blow to me because that is where I come from and what I believe makes up a vital part of the industries diversity and success at maintaining heterosis in commercial cattle production. In fact if you think about it almost all of the cattle in the US are maintained on commercial and a large number of those operations are smaller operations.

As I finish up this semester and as I will begin my last semster in college in January, I am desperately looking for the job path that will fit me best. I want to be a part of a cow/calf and/or stocker operation that will allow me to work with the cattle and the producers around the area. And of course it would be great to move close to home to be able to do that, but it just doesn't seem very probable.  Maybe someday I will find that opportunity to get my own herd and have the best cattle in the county. Someday....